Medicaid focused in megabill; ATF gun rules : NPR

Good morning. You are studying the Up First e-newsletter. Subscribe right here to get it delivered to your inbox, and hear to the Up First podcast for all of the information you should begin your day.

As we speak’s prime tales

President Trump’s megabill narrowly handed the Senate yesterday with a 51-50 vote. Vice President Vance solid the tie-breaking vote. The Home plans to vote on the invoice as we speak, as Republicans hope to get the package deal on the president’s desk by Friday. The laws is anticipated so as to add $3.3 trillion to the U.S. funds deficit by 2034. This is what’s contained in the plan.

🎧 Home Speaker Mike Johnson cannot afford greater than three folks voting towards the package deal and has mentioned the climate is an element. Flights had been delayed and canceled final night time as members of the Home tried to make it to the nation’s capital to vote. NPR’s Deirdre Walsh tells Up First that some conservatives threatened to vote no as a result of the Senate invoice prices considerably greater than the model the Home handed in Could. The GOP message is that Congress has to cross the invoice to keep away from a tax hike for the reason that tax cuts handed throughout Trump’s first time period expire on the finish of this 12 months. Walsh says that it’s a sophisticated message, as most individuals will not see vital adjustments of their paychecks.

Trump’s “One Large Stunning Invoice” goals to scale back federal spending on Medicaid and the Reasonably priced Care Act marketplaces by roughly $930 billion over the subsequent decade, based on the nonpartisan Congressional Funds Workplace. This newest estimate represents a reduce of $100 billion greater than what the Home voted to chop in Could. If handed, the invoice would reverse lots of the well being protection features achieved in the course of the Biden and Obama administrations, which made it simpler for tens of millions of individuals to entry well being care and lowered the U.S. uninsured fee to file lows.

🎧 There are 26 million Individuals with out medical health insurance proper now. That quantity is anticipated to go up by a 3rd due to this invoice, based on the CBO. The first method the invoice will separate folks from their insurance coverage is elevated paperwork, says Julie Rovner with KFF Well being Information. The invoice would require folks to show their eligibility each six months as an alternative of yearly. The method can be greater than filling out a type; folks would want to add numerous documentation to show their claims about their revenue or well being standing. This generally is a troublesome activity for individuals who are bodily or mentally sick.

The Trump administration is restructuring the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. DOGE is collaborating with ATF on round 50 regulatory adjustments, lots of which goal to calm down gun rules, based on folks NPR’s Meg Anderson spoke with who’re acquainted with the matter. One proposed change would prolong the validity of background checks for firearm purchases from 30 days to 60 days. One other change would allow gun sellers to destroy information after 20 years, relatively than requiring them to maintain these information indefinitely.

🎧 The Division of Justice has additionally proposed cuts to over 500 investigators. The ATF is the one company within the U.S. with the power to hint weapons concerned in crimes, a service police use on a regular basis. The company maintains a database of markings discovered on bullets and casings after they’ve been fired. “It is like a gun’s fingerprint,” Anderson says. Brandon del Pozo, who was the police chief in Burlington, Vt., says cuts to the company are at odds with the Trump administration’s declare that they are robust on crime.

As we speak’s hear